Syria: Rare Bomb Attack Kills 30 in Government-Controlled City

Attack on government checkpoint in central Syrian city of Hama has killed 30 people, according to activists.

By Ari Soffer

First Publish: 10/20/2013, 12:07 PM

Illustration: site of car bombing in Damascus

AFP file

A car bomb has killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more in an attack on the government-held city of Hama, in central Syria.

According to Syrian State Television "A terrorist car bomb explosion went off near an agricultural vehicle company on the edge of Hama city."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition group which monitors casualties in the country's two and a half year civil war, also confirmed the attack, claiming that "a violent explosion" close to the the Sinaa highway was "followed by intense gunfire."

The blast appeared to have targeted a regime checkpoint near an "agricultural vehicle company."

At the start of the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hama was a hub of opposition activity. However, government forces moved quickly and ruthlessly to reassert their control in the city, crushing the revolt there in the summer of 2011.

Since then Hama has seen only sporadic clashes as government forces maintain a tight grip on the city, notorious for its central role in the 1982 uprising against Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez, which was quelled through the mass-slaughter of anywhere between 10,000-20,000 people.